Background
Fences cut across historic migratory routes. Hundreds of thousands have died along these routes because they couldn’t get access to seasonal grazing and fresh water. Our area was once home to pioneer farms and ranches - the REMNANTS of which can be seen in open spaces, recreation areas, land trust holdings, undeveloped rural areas and even in residential neighborhoods. When abandoned, obsolete fencing often lays fallen from their posts, twisted and tangled on the ground, creating PERFECT TRAPS for hundreds of thousdands of WILD ANIMALS, as you will see in these shocking photos.
Another, often unrecognized, “NAIL IN THE COFFIN” to the success of wildlife survival is SEPARATION of animal families. We’ve witnessed heart-breaking scenes in our semi-rural area like the twin fawns trying to follow their Mother who had leapt over an obsolete barbed-wire fence, then crossed a road leaving behind the PANICKED FAWNS helplessly running up and down the fence line in a desperate attempt to find an opening. Unable to keep up with their Mothers, fawns will often curl up and die of exposure and dehydration. In Placer County, a local fawn rescue group rescues an average of 200 fawns per year!
SPREADING HUMAN POPULATION, human demand for fencing and lack of county fencing regulations has created a grid of impediments, leaving the only remaining corridors for wildlife movement - CREEKS and ROADWAYS. We’ve all witnessed the horrific consequences to wild animals lying in DEADLY SILENCE along roadways.
